Background of the Invention
The present invention relates to infant seats that include an infant swing suspended by an arm. More particularly, it relates to the attachment mechanism for pivotally attaching the infant seat to the swing arm for movement of the seat relative to the arm between a more reclined orientation and a more upright orientation.
Infant swings are well known in the art. In conventional swings, a seat is suspended from a pair of arms that hang down from a crosspiece, with the arms being connected to either side of the seat. The existing arrangements for infant swings often make it awkward to put the child into, or take the child out of the swing because the crosspiece extends across the swing over the seat. The crosspiece blocks easy access to the seat, causing a parent to bend and stretch to put a child into the seat.
Some conventional infant swings have improved accessibility of the seat by the elimination of the crosspiece. One approach to eliminating the crosspiece is to provide a pair of inverted U-shaped leg assemblies that are tilted toward each other and joined at the upper ends. Again, the seat is suspended by a pair of arms, with each arm being suspended from one of the joints at the upper ends of the U-shaped leg assemblies. The two top joints define a fixed horizontal axis of rotation about which the seat swings. Although this conventional frame permits ready access to the seat from front and top, it inhibits access from the sides of the swing.
Another alternative approach is to form the frame for the infant swing from two C-shaped legs, angled together and joined at the tops of the legs. A single swing arm swings about a horizontal axis through the joint. This permits ready access from front and sides. However, it is relatively more difficult to couple the seat to a single swing arm than to two opposed swing arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,817, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, discloses an infant swing that includes a plurality of legs and a swing arm mounted to the legs for swinging about a horizontal swing axis (as shown in FIG. 1A). The infant seat is mounted to the lower end of the swing arm by a seat-to-swing coupler that includes a T-shaped connector with laterally extending posts that are received in a T-shaped receiving cavity of a pivot plate, with slots in the side wall of the cavity that slidingly receive the connector posts. The pivot plate is pivotably mounted to the seat to permit the seat to be disposed in an upright orientation and a reclined orientation.
In all of the above mentioned conventional infant swings, the complexity of the attachment between the swing arm and the seat makes it difficult for a user to assemble the infant swing as well as increasing the costs associated with manufacturing of the infant swing.